Standards & Corrections

Gangland Files

Inside Canada’s Criminal Underworld

Standards & Corrections

Gangland Files reports on gangs, organized crime and drug cases across Canada. This page explains how we report, what we will and will not publish, and how to ask for a correction.

Where our facts come from

Police news releases, court decisions, prosecution releases and other official records.
Reporting by named news outlets, always credited to the outlet by name.
Every briefing ends with a sources box that links to each page we relied on. If we could not read a source ourselves, we do not cite it.

Presumption of innocence

A charge is an allegation, not a finding of guilt. Every person charged is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. We state the legal stage of each case exactly: charged, pleaded guilty, found guilty, acquitted, sentenced or stayed. Allegations are attributed to the police or the prosecution that made them.

Labels and wording

We do not call a person or group a gang, a crime family or a criminal organization unless a court, the police or a named outlet has said so, and we say who said it.
We keep the source’s own caution. If police say “suspected cocaine” or “believed to be”, that wording stays in our headline, summary and body.
Where something is not known or not reported, we say so plainly rather than guess.

Young people

We never name a young person charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and we avoid details that could identify them.

Profiles

Our organization and person profiles separate what courts have found from what police allege, what media have reported and what has not been established. Each profile shows the date it was last updated.

Corrections and updates

If we get something wrong, we fix it and say what changed. If a case moves on, for example charges are withdrawn or stayed, or a person is acquitted, we add an update to our earlier coverage when we learn of it. Readers, and people named in our coverage, can ask for a correction or an update by emailing info@ganglandfiles.com. Please include the page link and what you believe is wrong.

Some posts published before October 2026 were written before these standards were in place. We are reviewing them, and we will correct or update any that fall short.